How to Transfer Your iTunes Library to an Android Device

My sister was recently seeking advice on which phone she should buy. I asked her what she would like to use her phone for, and she said calls, texts, internet, and music.

An anonymous sales person was telling her to buy an iPhone because it was capable of handling the music situation. She really wanted to listen to her music, so she was leaning in that direction. I did my best to assure her that you can listen to music on any smart phone in the world, and for what minimal demands she had, she didn’t need a six hundred dollar phone.

It took me a couple days to figure out that the cause of her distress was the fact that her music collection was on iTunes, which is not an app available for Android. So does this mean that those who don’t want to carry around their iPods any more, or that people contemplating an iDivorce–leaving Apple for Android–must part with all those iTunes media files they’ve stocked up over the years?

No, silly. There’s an app for that. Several in fact.

There are several ways of transferring your music files, some are more technologically involved than others. So, I’ve sifted through them and found what I think is the easiest solution. If you want to explore other options check out this article.

The Method I Chose:

Google Play music. It’s free. It comes pre-installed on, like, all Android phones. If it’s not already there you can get it in the Google Play Store.

The Pros: you get free storage space for 20k songs, all music is saved to the cloud so you don’t have to take up storage space on your devices, easy transfer from iTunes and whatever other music you have stored on your devices, the app is free.

The Cons: Music is stored on the cloud (if you want to listen off line, you can download your music to the device, but it doesn’t happen automatically).

Okay, after messing around with it for a while, I found that the easiest way to transfer my music library to Google Play Music was to do it from the browser of a device or computer where I have the music downloaded to, as opposed to using the mobile app. In my case I used my laptop with windows 8.1—so my screenshots will be Windows-esque, but all you really need to know is how to navigate to the folder where your music files are.

Step 1: Go to Google Play Music in your browser at www.music.google.com (you can sign in with your Google account—same one you use for Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and the like)

Step 2: On the left hand side under Music, click on My Library

Step 3: Click Add Music, which can be found on the bar above your library window

Step 4: Click Select From Your Computer

Step 5: Open the Music folder

Step 6: Open the iTunes folder

Step 7: Select all the songs you want to upload (you’ll have to upload albums one at a time).

Step 8: Click Open

And now all the music you just selected will upload to your Google Play Music account. Once you have it uploaded you can go to the app on your device and refresh the Google Play Music library so that it reflects the new additions

To refresh your Google Play Music library on your device:

Step 1: In the Google Play Music app, tap the headphones in the top left corner

Step 2: Tap settings

Step 3: Tap refresh

Then tap the headphones in the top left corner again to exit settings. Go to my library. Once the new music has refreshed it will show under your library.

To download the music to your device for offline listening:

Step 1: From the app menu (tap the headphones in the top left corner to get there)

Step 2: Tap My library

Step 3: Tap Albums

Step 4: Tap the area below the album art with the three dots

Step 5: Tap Keep On This Device

You can also choose to have Google automatically update your library when you add files to the folders of your choice, like the music, iTunes, video and Pictures folders.

There you go people, you can enjoy the benefits of Android and keep your iStuff. You’re welcome.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using the links.

I’m a technological enthusiast with a completely unrelated degree in English Literature. I’ve also been known to dabble in photography and DIY furniture refinishing, with occasional stints of fitness sprinkled among all of the above.